Donald Glover is voicing Simba in director Jon Favreau's re-imagining of the animated classic.Chiwetel Ejiofor, who was nominated for an Oscar for starring in 12 Years a Slave, is in talks to voice the role of Scar, the traitorous villain in Disney’s live-action re-imagining of its classic, The Lion King, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Jon Favreau, who directed the live-action remake of The Jungle Book, is sitting behind the camera for King, which already boasts a stellar voice cast of Donald Glover as Simba, the young lion who would be king and James Earl Jones as his father, Mufasa (Jones voiced the character in the 1994 original).

Also lending their pipes to the pride are Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner and John Oliver.

Jeremy Irons voiced Scar, who betrays his brother Mufasa in order to steal the animal kingdom’s crown, in the animated version.

The new movie is currently shooting in Los Angeles.

Ejiofor was last ween on screen playing the troubled sorcerer Mordo in Marvel’s Doctor Strange.

Donald Glover will voice Simba, and Mufasa will be played by James Earl Jones.The pride's all here!

Alfre Woodard is the latest to join Jon Favreau's The Lion King, voicing Sarabi, Simba's mom. Woodard joins Donald Glover as Simba and James Earl Jones, who will be reprising his role as Mufasa. Madge Sinclair voiced Sarabi in the original 1994 Disney animated version.

Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner and John Oliver will also voice parts in the feature, which recently added Chiwetel Ejiofor to its roster to play the villain, Scar.

Jeff Nathanson (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) wrote the script for Disney, with Favreau and Jeffrey Silver producing. Lion King is currently shooting in Los Angeles.

Woodard was most recently seen in the Sundance standout Burning Sands and Netflix's Marvel series Luke Cage. Up next for the Oscar nominee is the indie Saint Judy, where she stars opposite Common and Michelle Monaghan, and Clark Johnson's Juanita, where she plays the title role.

Actor who played Black Panther’s father, King T’Chaka, in “Captain America: Civil War,” will voice royal adviser to Mufasa

John Kani Rafiki Lion King

Disney’s live-action remake of “The Lion King” has found its Rafiki in “Captain America: Civil War” actor John Kani.

TheWrap has learned exclusively that Kani, who played Black Panther’s father, King T’Chaka, in “Civil War,” will voice the baboon who serves as the royal adviser to Mufasa and his family in the Pride Lands.

Last week, TheWrap exclusively reported that Chiwetel Ejiofor is in talks to voice the villanous Scar in the remake. Donald Glover already stars as lion cub Simba, James Earl Jones as his father Mufasa and John Oliver as Zazu.

The original “Lion King” is one of the biggest animated films of all time: It grossed $968.8 million globally and won an Academy Award for the original song, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” as well as its original score by Hans Zimmer.

It finished its theatrical release as the highest-grossing release of 1994 and second highest-grossing of all time. It has also spawned a Broadway adaptation and two direct-to-video follow-ups.

Earlier this month at Disney’s D23 presentation, Jon Favreau, who is directing the new film, surprised fans with a first glimpse at how the famous “Circle of Life” opening from the original “Lion King” would look in his new version. The brief clip featured photo-realistic CGI animals similar to those in Favreau’s remake of “The Jungle Book,” which earned an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. The clip ended with the iconic image of Rafiki presenting the newborn Simba to the animals of the Pridelands.

As if we couldn’t be any more excited for Jon Favreau’s live-action remake of The Lion King, Beyoncé is reportedly not only *this* close to solidifying a deal to voice Nala, she could even be producing the soundtrack.

This news comes on the heels of the announcement that Alfre Woodard and John Kani have joined the cast of the increasingly star-studded film.

The Captain America: Civil War actors will reportedly voice Simba’s mother Sarabi and wise baboon Rafiki, respectively. The rest of the A-list cast includes Donald Glover (Simba), James Earl Jones (reprising his role as Mufasa), Billy Eichner (Timon), Seth Rogen (Pumbaa), and John Oliver (Zazu). Chiwetel Ejiofor is also in talks to join the film as Scar.

With most of the star-studded cast announced, Nala is the sole main character whose voice actor remains a mystery.

It’s been widely reported that Favreau really wants Queen Bey to play the future queen of Pride Rock. We finally have an update, and it seems the director is very close to getting his wish. It’s a Disney miracle.

If Beyoncé is probably going to play Nala, why is Disney being so coy about announcing the casting?

According to The Tracking Board, the role of Nala has yet to be announced because Beyoncé’s potential involvement in the soundtrack is kind of a huge deal and has made the negotiation process a bit more complicated. If Bey is confirmed, the soundtrack could feature new songs by the singer, as well as classics from the original, animated film.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the deal comes through soon because the anticipation is almost too much to bear.

We’re getting seriously excited about the film, which will land in theaters in July 2019.

Fans Are Demanding To Know If Beyoncé Is Actually In 'The Lion King' Live-Action Remake

Disney has been on a roll with its live-action remakes of its animated classics, and the studio is continuing this trend with director Jon Favreau's upcoming The Lion King remake. The film has assembled an impressive star-studded cast so far, consisting of reputable actors like Alfre Woodard, James Earl Jones, Donald Glover, Seth Rogen and Chiwetel Ejiofor. That's an impressive lineup of actors who'll undoubtedly be able to carry the weight of the film on their shoulders. But there's still one performer whom we've been dying to see join this cast: Beyoncé.

Back in March, Variety reported that #Disney was interested in having the singer play Nala, Simba's trustworthy companion. Nothing came out of that report, but our hopes were raised once again when, five months later, The Tracking Board revealed that Queen Bey was in final negotiations to join the film. Once again, things went quiet and we still haven't heard any news since that report came out. People have been understandably quite confused over her involvement as a result of that media silence, and now, we've gotten an idea of just how much people want to see Beyoncé in the remake.

The Hype For Beyoncé Joining 'The Lion King' Is Very Real

The Geeks of Color Twitter page recently posted an image featuring all the confirmed Lion King remake cast members. But continuing the frustrating mystery that's been her involvement, Beyoncé was missing from the lineup

As I'm sure you can imagine, the picture caused quite a stir online. Numerous Disney fans couldn't stop wondering what was happening with the beloved singer: Was she in the movie? Was she still in negotiations? Dozens of Twitter users voiced these concerns and questions in cheeky responses to the post:

we want the Beyonc announcement and we want it now pic.twitter.com/ereCtRlZSd— . (@trillbey) October 12, 2017

We'll Just Have To Wait And See What Happens

I don't know about you, but I totally agree with the desperation going on around the interwebs. So, is Beyoncé actually in The Lion King? To be honest, it's tough to tell. Hearing an actor is in "final negotiations" to join a project doesn't mean said performer will officially end up signing the dotted line. As frustrating as it may sound, all we can do right now is hope for a confirmation from Disney or Queen Bey herself.

Admittedly, there are a slew of other talented actresses who could bring Nala to life, but there's just something special about having Beyoncé voicing her. Her personality and killer vocals make her one of those rare, perfect fits for the character. I'm crossing my fingers to know more about that situation sooner rather than later.

The Lion King is expected to make its way into theaters on July 19, 2019.

Dal sito The Sun:Cracked it Jack Whitehall hits the big time after landing role in Disney’s 2018 blockbuster The Nutcracker And The Four Realms

The comic will take on one of the lead roles in the live-action adaptation of the classic ballet tale.

HIS A League Of Their Own co-star JAMES CORDEN has well and truly cracked America.

And now JACK WHITEHALL is following in his footsteps after landing his biggest gig yet.

I can reveal the Brit comic will star in Disney’s 2018 blockbuster The Nutcracker And The Four Realms, with KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, MORGAN FREEMAN and HELEN MIRREN.

Jack will take on one of the lead roles, Harlequin, in the live-action adaptation of the classic ballet tale.

The film will move him away from playing posh English men, as he did in BBC1’s Decline And Fall with EVA LONGORIA earlier this year, and in his latest drama Bounty Hunters on Sky1.

In an exclusive interview, he said: “I’d like to do more challenging stuff.

“You don’t ever want to be typecast.

“I just played MARC BOLAN in a thing for Sky, which was a very different role for me.

“Then I’m doing a Disney film where I play something else.

“It comes out next year and it’s called The Nutcracker. It’s very exciting.”

It’s a question that was raised once again on Wednesday after the studio announced the voice cast for Jon Favreau’s adaptation. But frankly it’s a question that isn't new in the animation and visual effects community.

Once upon a time it was easy to distinguish between live action and animation. But as digital visual effects become more sophisticated, an increasing amount of live action motion pictures are now created in a computer.

This became particularly apparent in 2002, when Stuart Little 2, which starred a CG mouse in a live action-set story, qualified in the category for the Academy Award for an animated feature. It didn’t go on to earn a nomination, but it generated plenty of debate. As digital techniques have continued to grow in sophistication and realism, it has only blurred the lines further.

In the 90th Academy Awards rules, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines an animated film as “a motion picture in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, and usually falls into one of the two general fields of animation: narrative or abstract. Some of the techniques for animating films include but are not limited to hand-drawn animation, computer animation, stop-motion, clay animation, pixilation, cutout animation, pinscreen, camera multiple pass imagery, kaleidoscopic effects created frame-by-frame and drawing on the film frame itself. Motion capture and real-time puppetry are not by themselves animation techniques.”

A key point is that “animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time. In addition, a narrative animated film must have a significant number of the major characters animated.”

The branch is very much aware of the blurring of the lines. In fact, the animated feature rules even state: “If the picture is created in a cinematic style that could be mistaken for live action, the filmmaker(s) must also submit information supporting how and why the picture is substantially a work of animation rather than live action.”

Under these guidelines, arguments could be made that certain films including Avatar and The Jungle Book could have been submitted for animated feature Oscar consideration. But the studios didn’t enter these films in the category. James Cameron and Jon Landau have asserted that Avatar is not an animated film, and they are among other filmmakers that share the same view.

These days, the term “virtual production” is commonly being used to describe films such as The Jungle Book, Avatar or Robert Zemeckis' The Walk. These are films in which a large amount of the final film is CG, but these still involved live action production techniques.

The Lion King’s VFX supervisor Rob Legato (who won Oscars for The Jungle Book, as well as Hugo and Titanic) has often said that production of The Jungle Book felt like a traditionally shot live-action movie, though it was filmed entirely on a bluescreen stage and only live-action element in the movie is Mowgli and whatever small piece of set Neel Sethi stood or climbed on. The rest is a photo-real CG jungle, and in the action sequences, the viewer is running or swinging alongside Mowgli thanks to cinematographer Bill Pope’s kinetic camera.

As to why Jungle Book took the virtual production route, Legato said at the time, “photographing a kid in the jungle and on a limited schedule is very difficult. A live-action shoot would be difficult, it wouldn’t look as good and It probably would be more expensive. With blue-screen, you are well on your way.”

But the techniques have been advancing at breakneck speed. Speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters Show last spring, Legato asserted that the virtual production process used to make The Jungle Book is “so outdated” from what they are doing on The Lion King.

“The ability to re-create anything and re-create it faithfully is the future of cinema," he said. "You shouldn't be aware that we were using a computer to make the movie.”

While many details about how the The Lion King is being made are still under wraps, Legato offered at NAB, "We are going to use a lot of virtual reality tools so it feels akin to what you are looking at [if you were on a real set]. You can walk around the set like a cameraman. [Wearing VR headsets] the actors can now walk into a scene and see the other actors and trees … and because you are in 3D, you get a realistic sense [of the environment]. That’s what we are incorporating in the next version of this.”

The first clip of The Lion King — the opening sequence — was screened last summer exclusively for attendees at Disney’s D23 Expo, and the audience went absolutely wild. It featured jaw-dropping photo-real shots of African landscapes and many types of animals. It ended with the iconic moment in which Rafiki introduces young Simba on Pride Rock as "Circle of Life" plays.

You would be hard-pressed to looked at those African vistas and realize it wasn't shot on location. But should this be considered an animated movie?

It’s a question The Hollywood Reporter asked Legato when The Jungle Book opened, and without hesitation, he said no. “I don’t consider this an animated movie,” he said. “I consider this just a movie, and this happened to be the best way to make it. We [made] it comfortable for Jon Favreau to come in and be able to direct as if it was a live-action film.”

With the live-action remake of Disney's The Lion King currently in production, Elton John says he's looking to get on board. [...] As for his whether or not he'll be participating in the upcoming live-action remake, John told ET, "Yes, I think so. I hope so." While the iconic singer wasn't able to tease any details about what his involvement would entail, it's hard to imagine any interpretation of The Lion King without John's musical compositions.

Dal sito NY Daily:Elton John will make millions with live-action remake of 'The Lion King'

Sir Elton John will bank as much as $13 million thanks to the upcoming live-action remake of the Disney cartoon “The Lion King.”

The British pop star has agreed to a deal to rework his smash hit compositions from the 1994 animated musical film.

His hits “Circle Of Life” and “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” will be modified in the new version of the film that’s set for release in 2019.

Jon Favreau, who directed 2016’s “The Jungle Book,” is set to helm and it will feature the voices of Beyoncé as Nala, Donald Glover as Simba, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and Keegan-Michael Key as Kamari.

Disney Studios has secured John for the project, but will not announce it for several more weeks.

Insiders say that the licensing deal is worth at least $4 million, but will rise in commission from DVD sales and streaming. Earnings from new album sales and royalties on radio worldwide will boost his bank balance too.

And on top of that, ticket sales from “The Lion King” stage productions worldwide will likely increase dramatically after the 2019 film release.

A source in L.A. said: “Elton is working with Disney on this new ‘Lion King’ project. They have reached an agreement to present some reworked versions of the classic hits and perhaps some new work.

“The songs will be thread into the storyline. It is unthinkable when you have Beyoncé involved not to have her sing some of those iconic hits — and that means huge sales to a new generation. The deal is a huge one and will earn him millions at many stages. Obviously he will get a one off licensing deal followed by a cut in royalties from all aspects of the work.”

Sir Elton bagged a “Best Original Song” Oscar for his musical work on the original film for “Can You Feel The Love Tonight.” Two other tunes were nominated for Academy Awards in the same category — “Hakuna Matata” and “Circle Of Life.”

Earlier this month, John shocked fans by appearing at the 20th anniversary of the Broadway production of “The Lion King.”

The 70-year-old star will have to find time in his schedule to rework the musical tracks once he completes his residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in May.

In an exclusive interview, Elton told me: “They need to have a new end credits song. There’s going to be four of our songs in the film, from the original: 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight', 'Hakuna Matata', 'I Just Can’t Wait To Be King', and 'Circle of Life'. And then there will be an end, closing song, and we’ve been speaking to Beyonce’s people and hopefully Tim and I and her can cook up something. That’s going out in 2019 as well. And it will be great to work with her. So we will see.”

And although it isn’t due to hit cinemas until July 19 next year, Elton revealed he has already been given a sneak peek. He teased: “I’ve seen a little bit of the opening of it, which is amazing. Jon Favreau is directing it, he did an amazing job on The Jungle Book. The film is going to be amazing.”

Dal sito Disney Film Facts:EXCLUSIVE: SCAR EXPECTED TO HAVE A DIFFERENT LOOK IN THE LION KING REMAKE!

Disney’s reimagining of The Lion King is deep into production and if you were lucky enough to see the footage from last years D23 Expo then you know the films characters will have a familiar to them, except one fan favorite character.

We have exclusively learned from a source close to the project that the film’s villain Scar is expected to have a new look to him.

According to our source, The studio is considering making Scar a rare white lion with a weak/frail look to him, the idea is to give Scar a much different look from the rest of the lions in the film(Simba, Nala, Mufasa, Serabi). This would be drastically different from the dark orange and black we know from the classic animated film.

It should be noted that this is what is being considered and things can easily change in post-production.

The Lion King is directed by Jon Favreau, and stars Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Alfre Woodard as Sarabi, John Oliver as Zazu, John Kani as Rafiki, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa, Billy Eichner as Timon, Eric Andre as Azizi, Florence Kasumba as Shenzi, Keegan-Michael Key as Kamari, JD McCrary as Young Simba and Shahadi Wright Joseph as Young Nala.

Before the session ended, the studio also dropped “The Circle of Life” opening sequence to Jon Favreau’s The Lion King, which hits theaters July 19, 2019, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Guy Richie-directed live-action Aladdin.

As for Lion King, it’s shot for shot with the 1994 feature toon, but what a difference real animals (or what looks like real animals) makes. Baby Simba looks great, and there’s a shot of Rafiki rubbing his forehead with red dust and raising him to the other animals. A big cheer from the exhibitor crowd here in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Da Twitter:The opening scene of the Circle of Life is shown for The Lion King! SIMBA LOOKS FUCKING ADORABLE #Disney #CinemaCon

Disney closed its presentation with a proof-of-concept clip for Jon Favreau's upcoming The Lion King — featuring a photo-real opening to match the animated classic, which concluded with the iconic moment in which Rafiki introduces an adorable young Simba on Pride Rock as "Circle of Life" plays. (This clip was first unveiled last year at D23.)

Scheduled for a July 19, 2019, release, The Lion King is again using virtual-production techniques, with Favreau reteaming with his Jungle Book Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Rob Legato and lead VFX house MPC.